Galileo Pre-K Online Receives a New Statewide Approval and Supports Programs Nationwide

ATI announces a new statewide approval for Galileo Pre-K Online in Florida. The Florida Department of Education Office of Early Learning has approved Galileo Pre-K Online as a pre- and post-assessment instrument for assessing children's school readiness. Programs in Florida along with those in Georgia, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania where Galileo is also approved, have the opportunity to choose Galileo Pre-K Online for state-aligned assessment, curriculum, and school readiness.  

Galileo provides a data-driven, standards-aligned approach to the management of learning for children from infancy through age 5. Galileo provides early childhood educators and other stakeholders a complete and fully integrated curriculum, assessment, and reporting system that links assessment, planning, individualization and program progress. Galileo supports multi-method observational assessment including pre- and post-assessment of children with diverse characteristics including English language learners and children with disabilities. Galileo is backed by ATI’s ongoing research program including research designed to establish on a continuous basis the reliability, validity, and psychometric properties of Galileo assessment scales. Galileo’s English and Spanish scales provide reliable and valid information on child progress towards standards mastery and school readiness. ATI provides the following elements to support preschool programs as they make program management decisions, plan learning opportunities, and work towards the achievement of goals including those related to state initiatives. 

• Experience in Standards-Based Assessment and Education: The Galileo G3 scales in English and Spanish are aligned with the Early Learning and Developmental Standards of most states across the country. These scales are comprised of comprehensive, empirically-based developmental sequences and have been developed and reviewed by experts nationwide. See Galileo G3 state alignments here.
• Measurement Expertise and Ongoing Research: Galileo is one of only a few early childhood assessment tools using Item Response Theory (IRT) techniques to provide a measure of progress towards standards mastery and school readiness. ATI’s expert staff has extensive experience conducting research to establish and update psychometric properties of assessment instruments as standards, instructional practices, and characteristics of the child population change. 
• Support for Large-Scale Assessment Initiatives: Galileo interfaces are available to support automated data extraction for transfer to data warehouses and other systems that might be implemented as part of state initiatives. Customized forms can also be used to capture customized child and site data (e.g., program type, license status) to meet data aggregation and report filtering needs.
• Flexible Intuitive Reporting Tools and Immediate Information for Decision-Making and Planning: The Galileo Pre-K Online reporting system and the Online Reporter provide a variety of ready-made, standards-aligned reports that can be generated at several levels of interest as well as the capability to generate customized reports that can meet administration, program, and teacher needs. Unlike results from paper-and-pencil assessments, Galileo data is immediately available for reporting. Users can aggregate and disaggregate large amounts of up-to-the-second data in reports that prompt action by decision-makers from teachers to state department staff. Galileo promotes family engagement via the Parent Center providing access to information about child progress as well as at-home activities in English and Spanish.
• Comprehensive, Customized Professional Development and Training: ATI has a long history of providing excellent online and on-site professional development and training and has trained thousands of early childhood educators across the country. The web-based professional development tutorials offered by ATI enable teachers to reliably conduct observational assessments, record and report on the data, and use the results to provide appropriate learning opportunities. In addition, customized web-based professional development provided by ATI enables technical assistance staff, trainers, and administrators to serve as effective trainers and to conduct quality assurance and compliance reporting.

To learn more about the tools Galileo Pre-K Online offers to enhance child learning, schedule an overview with a friendly and knowledgeable Field Services Coordinator.